A New Pair of Wings
by kAm1SaMa
Summary: A series of drabbles depicting little Phoenix and her interactions with the Flock. Chapters may or may not be related.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Early _Early_ Days**

* * *

The first thing she remembered was the eyes.

Creepy though that may sound, they became a constant part of her everyday life; pretty honey-brown orbs that expressed so much and so little all at once: weariness, annoyance, terror (usually, she found, this was always followed by a smell so terrible it almost always made her cry) and always, always love. There was always that.

So yes, Phoenix's first memory was her mother's eyes. If that made her a creepy weirdo-baby, she was cool with that.

〜（ゝ。∂）

The first time Phoenix / Fifi / Ninja Nix (with all these names, she still wasn't sure how she had ever remembered to respond to them all) spoke, it had been to an uproar of noise, coos (courtesy of Angel and Nudge) and, to her childish dismay, cuddles. This was mostly due to a conversation she had overheard a few days ago, though at the time she was a far cry from understanding it.

* * *

" _She'll say momma first, you know." The woman with the honeyed eyes had said matter-of-factly, clutching Phoenix tighter to her chest. Phoenix didn't mind this; it was warm._

" _...Hm." That was definitely the voice of the dark man, who was almost as warm as the woman and tended to rock her more. She liked him, too._

" _Don't you 'hm'! She will! I can_ feel _it." Removing her face from the crook of the woman's shoulder, she looks up and notices with childlike fascination that her face was red. This, of course, meant that she had to find out why. So, with all the care of a surgeon, she smacks her in the face with a chubby hand. That abruptly ended the conversation._

* * *

"Up!" This had come out more like 'Upsh', since her clumsy baby tongue hadn't quite mastered the 'p' sound. "Up!"

All noise in the room abruptly stopped, and heads turned to look at where the baby girl lay sprawled on a blanket across the floor, arms waving in the arm as she turns onto her back.

"Did she just-"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure she-"

"OMG, SHE JUST SAID SOMETHING! Fifi, say it again! Come on, you can do it!" Phoenix vaguely recognizes that the chocolate brown hands descending from the heavens to smooth down her hair-tufts were the same ones that dressed her most of the time. Unfortunately, she had no patience for tuft-smoothing, so when the dark man comes over to peer down at her along with everyone else, she looks right at him and demands again, "Up."

"I'm pretty sure that's not 'momma', Max."

"Shut up before you ruin the moment."

The other noises drain into the background as the dark man reaches down and picks her up, cradling her to his chest and rocking her gently from side to side. She instinctively curls against his chest and rests her head in the crook of his neck, but still not satisfied, she demands yet again, "Up!" Though this time it is more of a wail than anything.

"Hey, maybe she means this!" Her vision is suddenly filled with blonde hair and blue, blue eyes, the boy that always smelled weird if not _bad_ having shoved his face right up to hers before proceeding to unfurl his wings and give a few experimental flaps. Her face brightens at this, and the boy grins before jumping up and hovering in the air for a few moments before coming back down. She can feel the arms around her tighten, before the strangely comforting _whoosh_ sound following a small draft of air distracts her. Then, suddenly, they were airborne, the dark man and her. Not too high though, for the ceiling of the cave restricted this, but she was finally _up up up,_ and she expresses her joy by clapping her hands and releasing a series of adorably high pitched giggles.

So maybe her first word wasn't 'momma', but everyone in the room seemed terribly happy anyhow.

* * *

A/N: Well, that's the first chapter, I guess! I'm a hopeless Maximum Ride fan, and I've always imagined how life would go for little Phoenix what with the apocalypse having gone down and all, so I thought to myself: why not try and write it? Cx If it was unclear, this is taking place back when the flock was still stuck in the caves to escape the nasty aftereffects of the apocalypse.

Reviews are appreciated. No sugar-coating please, HIT ME WITH THAT BRUTAL HONESTY!


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry it took so long guys! But... life happens. Anyways, here's chapter 2!

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Chaos!**

* * *

Phoenix took her first steps when she was exactly one year and six days old. Sure, she had fallen down a few moments later, but that's beside the point. You see, Phoenix was a curious baby, and she had suddenly discovered that reaching things that she couldn't hope to before was so much easier. As you can imagine...

...chaos ensued.

"Ninja Nix, don't touch that- DON'T PUT THAT IN YOUR MOUTH. IGGY, GRAB HER!"

"I'm _blind_ and she's _actually_ like a freaking ninja, I don't know where she _IS_ -"

"Got'er!" Gazzy lifts the child up, caaaaaarefully removing the bit of clay she had gotten her hands on and placing it back on the dresser. Out of her reach this time. That could have been- Max and Fang would've killed them. Gulping, he looks over to Iggy, noticing that his partner in crime was looking paler than usual.

"Weeeell... Maybe we'll have another pyromaniac in the family?" Iggy says slowly.

"...No one mentions this to Max or Fang, agreed?"

"Agreed."

（＾Ｏ＾

About a week later, Phoenix learns to walk for minutes at a time. A few weeks after that, she can run without tripping over anything and everything. This was of course met with cheers from the flock, but all Phoenix could really focus on was the fact that she could actually try and get away from bath time. This was obviously a skill sent to her from the heavens.

She would use it wisely. After all, with great power came great responsibility...

And let her assure you, it was definitely her responsibility to get away from that bathtub.

"Noooooooo!" She howls, fumbling out of the bathroom and running down the hall as fast as her baby legs could carry her. "Baf time bad! No baf time!"

"Phoenix, wait- _oomph_." Max huffs as her attempt to grab the child results in her missing and landing face first on the floor. "Not again! FLOCK, CODE BLUE!" She calls as she gets up and starts to run after the runaway babe.

Yes, Phoenix had earned herself her own set of codes. A fact that would be sure to bring her pride in the future.

As for now, though, she is too busy trying to dodge the flock, occasionally resorting to vicious attacks - "Fifi, did you just _drool_ on me; that is _gross_ -" - and cunning use of weaponry - "Ninja, _stop hitting me with your stuffed frog_ -" in order to escape. Unfortunately, she is apprehended after six minutes of chaos. Drats!

As she is lifted into the air, she proceeds to glare at the dark man, trying to burn him with all the terrible baby anger churning inside her soul. But alas, he knows of her weakness! Shifting her in his arms so that he held her with one, Fang proceeds to tickle the girl with his free hand, completely straight-faced but for the small smile on his lips. She dissolves into a fit of giggles, squirming in his arms.

It is like this that she is returned to Max, who despite her grumbling - "Why can you always catch her? All you do is stand there and wait for her to come to you-" seemed cheerful enough when she finally gets her daughter into the bath, calming down when Fang presses a kiss to her temple.

Rest assured, Phoenix did get clean that night.


	3. Chapter 3

So, I'm still alive. Huge accomplishment, I know. Aha.

I typed this up on a whim at four in the morning. I reserve the right to awkward author's notes.

Enjoy~. (Also a huge thank you to those of you who reviewed. I really appreciate it!)

* * *

Phoenix stares determinedly down at her hands, clenching them into little fists. She was four now, and she thought herself to be very grown up. Grown up enough to make her own decisions. And she knew...

It was a fine day to die.

Well, she imagined it was. The walls of the cave were still pretty gray, but she assumed that the sky outside was blue and that the entire universe decided to be beautiful, just to mourn the soon-to-be loss of Phoenix. With a sigh, the young girl peeks around the corner, spotting a shock of blonde hair, her enemy clutching their weapon of mass destruction. It was now or never, and there was no way she was being taken down without a fight. Taking a deep breath, she releases a fierce battle cry and charges at the enemy.

" _aaaaaaAAAAAAAAUUUGHGHDUIFHSKDN_!"

Arms wrapped around the waist of her adversary, she tackles him to the ground, an expression of extreme fury on her face as she proceeds to smack him on the cheeks. Repeatedly.

"Ninja Nix, wha- _ow_ , there is no hitting in dodgeball! And no tackling!" Gazzy bonks her on the head with the ball in his hand, looking like he was deciding between laughing and grimacing. He soon decides on that second one, though, since Phoenix had moved from slapping at his cheeks to trying to wrestle the ball from him and nail him in the face (she was failing). "You're out, kiddo. Actually, you were out when you left the room."

She tumbles off of him, an expression of utter horror overcoming her. "Why didn't ya _tell_ me? I thought ya were just 'sposed to knock the other guys out!"

"You're supposed to _get_ them out, not knock them out! And I did tell you."

She looks at him blankly.

"We sat down for like five minutes to talk about dodgeball rules."

More blank staring.

"...You were messing around with your stuffed frog."

"Oh! When ya were talkin' about the boring parta Extreme World Domin- Domina- Dominashion!" She claps her hands together as if she had suddenly gotten it, nodding seriously.

"Nix, _what_ , we were talking about Extreme Dodgeball, how did you-" Gah. Nevermind. Flopping onto his back, the blonde boy puffs out a sigh (he definitely was not pouting, nope) even as he grins at the four year old who was currently looking under the furniture for her beloved frog. It was definitely weird, but keeping an eye on Nix wasn't so bad.

He was definitely gonna get Iggy to try it next time, though. And hey, if his grin turned a bit devious, no one was going to tell.


End file.
